Mark Watney became the first person to walk on Mars. But now, it looks like he’ll be the first person to stay there. After Mark gets stranded without his crew and supplies, he is determined to stay alive, even with the unforgiving Mars atmosphere. As he draws upon his past experiences and engineering skills, he successfully is able to communicate with NASA and alert his friends and family that he is still alive. But disaster strikes, and communication is cut once again. As instinct takes over, The Martian demonstrates how far someone will go to survive in an area where the odds of survival are less than zero.
The Martian was a wild ride. There were many parts of the novel where I had no idea what was going on, because I’m not very familiar with intergalactic engineering skills. There were also a lot of discussions revolving around chemistry, which, after taking my AP Chemistry exam, wasn’t very favorable in my perspective. The Martian somehow adds in humor and lightheartedness in a situation that no one wants to be trapped in- stuck in outer space alone and with no way to alert NASA back at Earth that you are alive. It was slightly suffocating when reading some of the space descriptions, but Mark Watney’s humor is sprinkled in at appropriate times that makes the whole read less stressful. I had a good time reading this, but the AP Chemistry part of me did not…